“George, dear boy,” said Totty, “this is a very delicate matter. I really hardly know how to begin, unless you will help me.” A little laugh, half shy, half affectionate, rippled pleasantly in the dusky air. Totty meant to show from the first that she was not angry.
“About Mamie?” George suggested.
“Yes,” Totty answered with a quick change to the intonation of sadness. “About Mamie. I am very much troubled about her. Poor child! She is so unhappy—you do not know.”
“I am sincerely sorry,” said George gravely. “I am very fond of her.”
“Yes, I know you are. If things had not been precisely as they are——” She paused as though asking his help.
“You would have been glad of it. I understand.” George thought that she was referring to his want of fortune, as she meant that he should think. She wanted to depress him a little, in order to surprise him the more afterwards.
“No, George dear. You do not understand. I mean that if you loved her, instead of being merely fond of her, it would be easier to speak of it.”
“To tell me to go away?” he asked, in some perplexity.
“No indeed! Do you think I am such a bad friend as that? You must not be so unkind. Do you think I would have begged you so hard to come and stay all summer with us, that I would have left you so often together——”
“You cannot mean that you wish me to marry her!” George exclaimed in great astonishment.